This blog is intended to capture the thoughts of an emerging edu-blogger committed to creating constructivist learning experiences for students. Please visit The Connected Classroom Wiki for more resources and information

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Art Turned Ugly: A lesson in Fair Use

I know that the question of Copyright and Fair Use and use of media continues to come up over an over again...so I thought it was important to share this article my assistant superintendent pointed me to regarding a case over the Obama ‘Hope’ poster...go ahead google image search it...you know the one I mean. The article is mainly about how the AP is filing suit to the artist of the poster who is claiming fair use is at the center of a copyright battle that the article states “goes to the heart of how media is made, remixed and mashed up.” It references a PA women who’s 29-second video of her toddler dancing to Prince's song "Let's Go Crazy" is ongoing in a case claiming fair use..29 seconds...less than what the traditional fair use guidelines say IS fair with no reference of transformative use. Check out the examples in the article... AND most importantly this message

Courts determine if a new work is fair use by asking the following questions: Is the new work transformative - does it add new meaning - and not just replicate the original? What is the nature of the work? (Creative or fictional works generally get more protection than purely factual ones, legal scholars say.) How much of the original work is used? Does the new creation use the "heart" of the original? And how would the new work affect the market for the original?

And then ask yourself...what messages are we teaching our kids? Are we strictly teaching them to follow the guidelines...or are we teaching them to think about transformative use? Are we thinking about media literacy skills in all content areas as we redesign curriculum?

What do you think about this case is the poster a transformative use of the original image?IMAGES HERE